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President Barack Obama bowed to the reality on the ground this week when he announced the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan won't be completed by the end of this year as planned. Mr. Obama once hoped to cut the 9,800 remaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan by half over the next nine months and reduce that total to fewer than 1,000 by the time he leaves office in 2017. But the Taliban and al-Qaida haven't cooperated with his timetable, nor are the fledgling Afghan security forces ready to defend the country on their own yet. So the president has had to bite the bullet and keep a sizable force in Afghanistan even while insisting he still intends to bring all the troops home...

Related "Pakistan" Articles

President Barack Obama bowed to the reality on the ground this week when he announced the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan won't be completed by the end of this year as planned. Mr. Obama once hoped to cut the 9,800 remaining U.S. troops in...

What possible crime could a young student have committed that he or she deserves death? Can't think of any, right? This is what was going through the minds of horror stricken parents in Peshawar, Pakistan ("Horror in Peshawar," Dec. 16).
This...

The cowardly attack on hundreds of Pakistani schoolchildren by Taliban fighters in the city of Peshawar Tuesday has rightly drawn the condemnation of the world. The militants targeted a school where many members of Pakistan's officer corps send their...

The attack on a cafe in Sydney, Australia, by a self-described Islamic cleric with a long police record, left two hostages dead, along with the cleric, one Man Haron Monis. He was an Iranian refugee who enjoyed the hospitality and...

An American cardiologist, Dr. Mehdi Ali Qamar, was recently murdered in Pakistan for his faith ("American doctor shot dead in Pakistan in suspected sectarian attack," May 27).
He was an Ahmadi Muslim traveling back to his country of origin to...

Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Qureshi, a retired surgeon who worked with the elderly residents of Baltimore's public high-rise apartments, died of complications of Alzheimer's disease May 6 at Quail Run Assisted Living in Perry Hall. He was 75 and had lived in...

My favorite story in The Baltimore Sun last week was by my colleague Eileen Ambrose, reporting on how Marylanders are a bunch of whiners, at least according to a state-by-state breakdown of the complaints received by the federal Consumer Financial...

In a 1993 classic movie, Bill Murray plays a weatherman who is given the assignment to view the annual awaking of the ground hog Punxsutawney Phil and finds himself living the same day over and over again. Today we are experiencing much the same thing...

Nothing shows the true intent of our enemies more than the horrific attacks against a Christian house of worship in Pakistan and against shoppers at a mall in Kenya ("Smoke pours from Kenya mall as forces 'close in,'" Sept. 23).
Rather than...

I watched 60 Minutes on Sunday and saw the anguish still being experienced by the Sandy Hook parents. Their grief has caused them to turn to action, and they are in Washington to lobby Congress to pass legislation that might prevent other gun...

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the most frequently heard forecast was: "This changes everything."
Americans would live in constant fear of the next attack, many pundits predicted. The desire for safety would spawn a security...

A military judge ruled Tuesday that Army Pfc. Bradley E. Manning violated the Espionage Act when he gave a trove of classified material to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks to publish online.
But Army Col. Denise Lind found the onetime Marylander not...

Most likely we all agree that the Boston bombing was cowardly, senseless, dastardly. It cries out for justice. And just about every cop in the universe was on this case, big time.
But what about all the drone bombings in Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, and...

The general who led the Pentagon's review of the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history told a military judge Wednesday that their publication revealed tactics, strained relations with some allies and caused some Afghans to stop...

The horrific recent bombings at a church in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing more than 80 innocent worshipers have painfully reminded me of the events of May 28, 2010. On that day, more than 80 worshipers were martyred at two mosques of the Ahmadiyya Muslim...

It was June in 1960 in Aberdeen, and one of the town's organizations was celebrating its 25th anniversary with "The Arc Lite." The R. Lee Mitchell family saved this program, and it was included in a scrapbook of 1960.It was a grand affair,...

For a while last year, I started to worry about liking Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom” so much.Most of my colleagues didn’t like it — not that being out of sync with the herd ever bothered me greatly. It usually turned out that I did better work outside the...

After many ups and downs, Congressional passage of comprehensive immigration reform now looks possible. In exchange for tighter border controls, an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants will receive a path to citizenship. The biggest players in the...

After four and half years of dealing with Afghan President Harmid Karzai's temper tantrums, depressions and crazy mood swings, it's no wonder President Barack Obama has grown weary of playing baby sitter to this spoiled child of an ally. Perhaps that's...

Last year, in the heat of his campaign, President Barack Obama boasted that he had put al-Qaida "on the path to defeat." This year, with 19 U.S. consulates and embassies closed and the State Department issuing vague warnings against travel...